Rescuers save newborn from sewage pipe in China

1of9In this still image taken from video from Saturday May 25, 2013, rescue workers cut away parts of a sewage pipe where a newborn baby was trapped in Pujiang in east China's Zhejiang province. Chinese firefighters have rescued a newborn boy from a sewer pipe below a squat toilet, sawing out an L-shaped section and then delicately dismantling it to free the trapped baby, who greeted the rescuers with cries. A tenant heard the babyâs sounds in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue that followed was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTPhoto: Uncredited, SUB

2of9In this still image taken from video from Saturday May 25, 2013, a firefighter holds a section of a sewage pipe where a newborn baby appears trapped in Pujiang in east China's Zhejiang province. Chinese firefighters have rescued a newborn boy from a sewer pipe below a squat toilet, sawing out an L-shaped section and then delicately dismantling it to free the trapped baby, who greeted the rescuers with cries. A tenant heard the babyâs sounds in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue that followed was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTPhoto: SUB

3of9In this still image taken from video from Saturday May 25, 2013, rescue workers cut away the section of a sewage pipe where a newborn baby was trapped in Pujiang in east China's Zhejiang province. Chinese firefighters have rescued a newborn boy from a sewer pipe below a squat toilet, sawing out an L-shaped section and then delicately dismantling it to free the trapped baby, who greeted the rescuers with cries. A tenant heard the babyâs sounds in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue that followed was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTPhoto: SUB

4of9In this still image taken from video from Saturday May 25, 2013, rescue workers cut away the section of a sewage pipe where a newborn baby was trapped in Pujiang in east China's Zhejiang province. Chinese firefighters have rescued a newborn boy from a sewer pipe below a squat toilet, sawing out an L-shaped section and then delicately dismantling it to free the trapped baby, who greeted the rescuers with cries. A tenant heard the babyâs sounds in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue that followed was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTPhoto: SUB

5of9In this still image taken from video from Saturday May 25, 2013, rescue workers cut away parts of a sewage pipe where a newborn baby was trapped in Pujiang in east China's Zhejiang province. Chinese firefighters have rescued a newborn boy from a sewer pipe below a squat toilet, sawing out an L-shaped section and then delicately dismantling it to free the trapped baby, who greeted the rescuers with cries. A tenant heard the babyâs sounds in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue that followed was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTPhoto: Uncredited, SUB

6of9In this still image taken from video from Saturday May 25, 2013, the feet of a newborn baby boy is seen in a toilet bowl where he was stuck in Pujiang in east China's Zhejiang province. Chinese firefighters have rescued a newborn boy from a sewer pipe below a squat toilet, sawing out an L-shaped section and then delicately dismantling it to free the trapped baby, who greeted the rescuers with cries. A tenant heard the babyâs sounds in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue that followed was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTPhoto: Uncredited, SUB

7of9In this still image taken from video from Saturday May 25, 2013, a firefighter attempts to remove a section of a sewage pipe where a newborn baby appears trapped, in Pujiang in east China's Zhejiang province. Chinese firefighters have rescued a newborn boy from a sewer pipe below a squat toilet, sawing out an L-shaped section and then delicately dismantling it to free the trapped baby, who greeted the rescuers with cries. A tenant heard the babyâs sounds in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue that followed was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTPhoto: Uncredited, SUB

8of9In this still image taken from video from Saturday May 25, 2013, a firefighter removes a section of a sewage pipe where a newborn baby appears trapped, in Pujiang in east China's Zhejiang province. Chinese firefighters have rescued a newborn boy from a sewer pipe below a squat toilet, sawing out an L-shaped section and then delicately dismantling it to free the trapped baby, who greeted the rescuers with cries. A tenant heard the babyâs sounds in the public restroom of a residential building in Zhejiang province in eastern China on Saturday and notified authorities, according to the state-run news site Zhejiang News. A video of the two-hour rescue that followed was broadcast widely on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTPhoto: Uncredited, SUB

9of9Rescue workers on Saturday cut away parts of a sewage pipe where a newborn baby was trapped after being flushed down a toilet.Photo: AFPTV, Stringer

BEIJING - A newborn's cries from a public restroom in a residential building in eastern China led a tenant to a startling discovery: a baby boy trapped in a sewage pipe beneath a squat toilet.

Firefighters, unable to pull the baby out, ended up sawing away an L-shaped section of the pipe and carrying it to a hospital, where it was delicately pried apart to save the infant.

Video of the two-hour rescue of Baby No. 59 - so named because of his incubator number in the hospital in the Pujiang area of the city of Jinhua - was shown on Chinese news programs and websites late Monday and Tuesday.

The baby, who weighed 6 pounds, 2.8 ounces, had a low heart rate and some minor abrasions on his head and limbs, but was mostly unhurt, according to Zhejiang Online, the province's official news site.

The placenta was still attached.

It was unclear how the baby ended up in the toilet, but police said they were treating the case as an attempted homicide.

In the video, officials were shown removing the pipe from a ceiling that apparently was just below the restroom and then, at the hospital, using pliers and saws to gently pull apart the pipe, which was about 3 inches in diameter.

The rescue prompted an outpouring from strangers who came to the hospital with diapers, baby clothes, powdered milk and offers to adopt him. In China, reports of babies being abandoned are common.